Butterfly/Hummingbird Garden

This is the third year for my garden and every morning I take a walk around, amazed at how quickly it has changed and filled in. I've made plenty of mistakes and I expect I'll make plenty more but over all I am absolutely thrilled with the garden this year.

The space between the house and the garage was the perfect spot for a butterfly garden. I decided to throw in a few plants to attract humming birds too. One of my first purchases was three tiny Red Husker Penstemons from a mail order company known for low prices. The first year they stayed small and green but not knowing any better I figured that was normal. The second year they stayed green and sent up thin stalks that waved in the breeze. Instead of the white flowers I had expected I got dozens of flowers of a color I can't name. Sometimes they seem red, other days dark pink and today I guess I'd describe them as a rich coral. So I have no idea what variety they actually are but the hummingbirds love them. After my initial disappointment that I didn't get what I ordered, so do I.

They are planted at the back of the butterfly
puddle that has become more of a rock pile.

A longer view of the bed.

Can you see the hummingbird?

Close up the flowers appear to be grinning.

Happy Surprise

I bought this Penstemon in Buffalo last year. The tag color indicated that it would be a very bright pink. I didn't need another bright pink flower but the hummingbirds love the flowers so I bought it anyway.

It started blooming on Saturday. The color of each flower starts out a pale pink near the stem and becomes light purple at the end.

This is one of those rare occasions that I'm thrilled with a miss marked plant!

Sister's Weekend

Last weekend was a gardening dream! Early Saturday Country Girl picked me up to go plant shopping but before we could leave she had to unload the plants she brought me. She had told me she was bringing me some things but holy cow!

Giant Solomon's Seal, White Phlox and in the back a mystery plant

We headed out in the rain to the Regional Market in Syracuse. The rain stopped before we got there and the place was packed. Prices were not as low as I'd hoped and there weren't many great deals but we did find a few. My greatest find was this Fuchsia. I didn't know there were varieties with flowers this big and just had to have it.
I hadn't been to the Market in years so it was fun even if the prices weren't what I'd hoped for. Our next stop was Seneca Hill Perennials. They are a local grower that I was unaware of until I saw them mentioned by Kathy Purdy at Cold Climate Gardening. They do mostly mail order and are only open a few days in May and June. We enjoyed touring the gardens and a couple of the greenhouses.

Giant Solomon's Seal at Seneca Hill.

I picked up a Penstemon Tubaeflorus and this adorable Shooting Star.

Dodecatheon

We had a nice lunch in Oswego and headed over to Ontario Orchards. I had head great things about them but I was less than impressed. They had mostly the same things you find everywhere, their prices were high and one of the cashier's was quite rude. Perhaps we caught them on a bad day but I probably won't go back.

Our final stop was at Hoxie's, a little greenhouse I pass often but had never stopped at. They had just annuals but at a great price so Country Girl was able to pick up some things for her some of her flower boxes. I am trying to get my annuals going from seed but at the rate things are not germinating I will probably head back there to pick up some plants to fill in here and there.

My sister's schedule is such that we don't get to spend much time together so seeing each other two weekends in a row was great. I'm sure we'll do something together before the end of July but we're already making plans for Garden Walk.

Sunday found me out in the garden early digging up plants for a swap that a co-worker hosted in the afternoon. Since the garden club didn't have a swap after all :(!!!!! this year I was really looking forward to this one and I was not disappointed. Not only did we swap plants but we got a tour of her woodland garden and had a chance to socialize outside of work. I got three different hosta including a cute little mini one, rose of sharon, yellow coneflower, woodland hyacinth, bleeding heart and several unnamed plants with just a description of what they will look like.

I got all of the bareroot plants in right away and most of the rest went in over the course of the week. New plants meant moving things around and catching up on some of the weeding that never seems to be done so it's been a great week in the garden!